Quick and easy dinner

Need a quick and easy dinner idea... well you came to the right place!  

Here is my "under 30 minute" dinner.  

Crunchy Chicken Breasts

**Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

**Beat 2 eggs and roll chicken breasts in egg

**Smash up some Frenches Fried Onions (yes the kind you use to make that green bean casserole at Thanksgiving) and roll the chicken breasts (with the egg) in the crumbs... I coat them really good.

**Put coated chicken in a pan and back at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until chicken is done all the way through.

***** since full chicken breasts are not on the list of edible foods that Andrew will consume, I use a pair of kitchen scissors and cut the chicken into chunks and follow the above recipe.  He thinks he is actually eating chicken nuggets and it is really not much extra work and everyone is happy.  Any dinner without tears is a good dinner.

Bean Bundles

**2-3 cans of green beans (un cut)

**Take strips of bacon and cut them in half

**Make a small bundle of green beans and wrap them with half a piece of bacon and secure with a tooth pick

**Arrange bundles on cookie sheet

**In microwave, melt 3 Tbs butter and mix that with 3 Tbs brown sugar.  Spoon this mixture on each of the bean bundles.

**Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or longer if you like your bacon more crispy

****notice that the chicken and bean bundles are baked at the same temperature... yup, I am that good!

Super Fast Mashed Potatoes (with the skins)

***I use EXCEL Potato Pearls : creamy butter with skins.  These are actual freeze dried potatoes that just need reconstituting.  Just add water and you literally have mashed potatoes in about 1 minute.  The are very buttery and fluffy and only 3gms of fat per serving.  This is an easy way to have mashed potatoes without all the work. 

And there you have it.  

So you've heard of cow tipping...

I am not quite sure of his motivation, but Sam has started what can only be called "baby tipping". Perhaps he feels that Sean needs some tough love, maybe he is jealous or maybe he just thinks it is funny... whatever the case may be , "baby tipping" sightings have become a frequent happening around these parts.  

So here is how it all goes down... literally.  Sam goes up to Sean and positions himself behind him, gives him a kiss on the top of the head and than puts his hand in the middle of Sean's back and gently pushes until he topples over and does a face plant into the carpet.  Quite pleased with himself  (as if he has performed some great public service), Sam then moves on to other things.  Sean in the mean time is left wailing on the floor in an almost frozen state with is face in the carpet and his butt in the air... as if he is locked in the sitting position when the tipping occurs.  He feels betrayed and is not quite sure how to handle this sort of brotherly love.  Sometimes Sam takes a full frontal approach and all I can say is some webbles DO fall down.  

Over all Sam still remains quite affectionate towards Sean but this baby tipping thing seems to be more of an experiment in Physics than an act of malice.  Gravity is often fascinating and cruel.  It is almost as if Sam is testing him... sort of like a Zen master trying to explain the importance of balance through example.  Practice and patience young Grasshopper.  

he's a moose

Recently I noticed that Sean's toes were at the very end of his footy PJ's so I pulled out larger hand-me-downs.  He is in the 90th % for height and at 18 lbs. 13 oz,  he weighs 1 pound less than Andrew did at 1 year... and he is only 6 months! I thought this little outfit was soo cute and I remember I bought it for Andrew to wear on Christmas.  I pulled it out of the box, sized it up and determined that it would never fit Sean next year... so I thought I would see if it fit him now in hopes we could get a few more uses out of it before it becomes too warm... well it fits...barely!

Here is a pic of Andrew at 13 months...

 

Here is Sean in the same outfit at 6 1/2 months... 

with not much room to spare.

betrayal... oh Mom how could you?

So I just introduced bananas to Sean.  I thought bananas were safe... all babies like bananas... right!  Sean got this look on his face that translated into something like "hey lady, what was wrong with just the rice cereal?"... "why'd ya have to go and mix things up?"  I got a similar reaction when I tried to give him the Tri-Vi-Sol liquid vitamins.  If you have ever tasted that stuff yourself you will surely agree with me that the person who invented this stuff did not like children!  It is horrid. Anyway... the open jar of pureed baby bananas has a shelf life of 2 days in the fridge so guess what he is getting for dinner.... LOL.  

I only turned my back for a second...

 Note to self... next time don't buy a couch with removable cushions.

green is the color of the day

So it has been another one of those days.... a green day as a matter of fact... and not the kind of green I long to see this time of year. The suction machine has been working overtime and I am about ready to use it on myself.  You might think this is funny... but it's SNOT!  Andrew and Sam are on antibiotics for sinus infections and although I have refused to admit it... I have had one brewing for sometime now.  I read somewhere that whether or not you treat a sinus infection with antibiotics it takes about 2 weeks to get it all out of your system.  So because I am still breastfeeding, I drank fluids, used the neti pot and smothered my self in Vics hoping that if I was only patient my body would heal itself with no other pharmaceutical intervention.  Well we are approaching the 3 week mark and I have now admitted defeat... I will see the doctor on Friday.   

doin' the happy dance

I just had a proud Mommy moment and I am doing the happy dance.  More and more Sam is letting us know that he understands what is going on around him.  His attention span is getting longer, he is able to complete simple tasks without getting distracted or side tracked (sometimes), and is needing fewer visual or verbal prompts.  For example if I wanted Sam to ask me to turn on his toy piano rather than screeching  and throwing it at me, I would have to ask him to say "Piano Please" and that would sometimes get me a "P" sound and a sloppy ASL sign for please.  More recently I have been able to just ask "What do you want?" and he is able to provide me with the same Pa-Pa sound and sign.  This shows me that Sam is moving beyond just being a mimic and is actually pulling the response out of his head on his own without the prompt from me.  

*** allow me to do a little happy dance here***  

And as if that is not enough... there is more!!!  As you know we have been working very hard to get Sam walking.  He takes a few steps here and there but crawling or walking on his knees is his mode of preference.  I can tell that walking is becoming easier and less foreign to him because he throws more of a fit for the physical therapist when working on walking.  It is not because he can't... rather it is because he has a general idea of how to, knows it is more difficult and chooses not to.  She is relentless (God bless her) and does not give in to his oh so dramatic complaints.  Little does he know that he is actually working harder trying to not walk than if he would just get up and do it.  And he is more willing to attempt a few steps if he thinks no one is watching. Well today Sam once again had moved the chair away from the DVD cabinet, opened it up and was pulling movies off the self at an astonishing pace... obviously he had not found what he was looking for.  In middle of his movie flinging frenzy I stopped him and said... "Sam if you want a movie you walk to mom and I will get you the movie you want.." and OMG he stopped, he pulled to stand, balanced himself between the couch and the chair and took 2 steps towards me.... and he didn't even have his braces on.  I was stunned... not only because he took steps but on an even higher cognitive functioning level he knew exactly what I wanted him to do, he thought about it, made a motor plan and followed through.  

***OMG I'm dancing again***

THEN...yes... there is still more!!! I selected 4 movies and placed them on the floor in front of Sam.  He sat there patiently with his hands in his lap and looked at each one...really looked at them.  Then he picked one up, looked at it and put it behind him (He did not throw it!!!) then he picked up 2 more, one in each hand, looked at them both and then handed me one (again he did not throw it!!!)  I about cried.  I then put a pillow on the couch and asked him if he wanted to get up there to watch his movie... he said "Yah" got up there and assumed the position.  It was a real communication break through.  I've said it before... and I will say it again... SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE!  I am so proud to be Sam's mom.  This child has moved mountains to get to where he is today and I am more inspired by his abilities than I am discouraged by his disabilities.  

Here is Sam lounging on the couch watching the movie he selected... 

Toy Story.